Beginning Art
Vocabulary
• 4 Areas of study for art education: Production; Aesthetics; Art
History; Critique.
• 4 checks for blocking in: 1. Size – check to make sure the sizes are
in proper proportion to one another. 2. Shape – Do the basic shapes
represent the actual shapes? 3. Angles – Do the angles in your drawing
match the angles of the model? 4. Placement – Are all of the shapes placed
in the right spaces? Together, these things form the spatial relationships
between objects.
• Abstract – Move away from representation toward expression.
• Aesthetics - The philosophy that asks: “What is art” or “What is
beautiful” deals with how we respond to what we see.
• Analogous Colors – Colors that are close together on the color wheel
(within four spaces) and share a primary (ex. blue and red-violet)
• Blending – A method of creating the illusion of a soft edge by slowly
moving from one value to another.
• Blind Contour Drawing – an exercise used to practice perceiving edges
and their contours, drawing the edges of an object without ever looking at
your paper. Also helps students to get in the habit of looking at the object
more than their paper.
• Blocking In – Method for quickly planning out the main parts of a
drawing by simplifying the shapes to the most basic, recognizable geometric
shapes. Corrections can then be made to the spatial relationships before a
great deal of time is invested in exact detail.
• Burnishing - In drawing, covering the surface of the paper either
with color or value so that none of the paper shows through, creating a very
intense, solid color or value.
• Cast Shadow – Occurs on a surface that is facing the light but
something is blocking the light, casting a shadow on the surface.
• Cognitive Shift – Switching from one mode of thinking to another (ex.
From seeing the vase to seeing the face, from r-mode to l-
mode)
• Color – objects absorb some light. Objects reflect some light. We
see light that is reflected as color.
• Color Scheme – a planned arrangement of colors for a desired effect.
• Color Traits (three) – Hue, value, and intensity.
• Color Value – every color has a light, dark or medium value. A
color’s value is one of its three traits.
• Color Wheel – Usually 12 of the pure hues arranged in a circular
format. Color wheels teach us about color theory and how colors are mixed.
• Complimentary Colors – Opposite Colors on the color wheel. Red is
greens opposite because it is formed by mixing the other two primaries, blue
and yellow, without any red.
• Composition – The arrangement of images in a work of art in order to
create good design.
• Content – The idea or feeling the artist is trying to express.
• Contour – The shape of a surface – the directions in which edges move
and curve.
• Contour Drawing – Like a blind contour but stopping the drawing often
to check for accuracy. It is closer to the way one should always draw.
• Contrasting Colors – A combination of three colors equally distant on
the color wheel (three primaries together a contrasting colors).
• Cool Colors – Blue, Green, and Violet are considered cool colors. A
cool color scheme is usually more still, quite, or depressed. Peace, calm,
or sadness might be expressed with cool colors.
• Creative process – Steps that artist’s take to make decisions about
subject matter, composition, and content, and create an effective work of art.
• Critique: Describing, analyzing, and judging works of art and the
decisions that artists make about their works.
• Cross Hatching – hatching in more than one direction. Most artists
create their own unique style of cross-hatching.
• Cylinder – A solid form bounded by two equal, parallel circles
joined by a curved plane that follows the circumferences.
• Edge – Where a shape meets another shape or where a shape meets a
space.
• Elements of Art – Line, Shape, Value, Color, Texture, Space, and
Form. The ingredients that are organized in a work of art to create a
composition.
• Ellipse – A circle that recedes appears as an ellipse.
• Emphasis – Creating a focal point in a composition in order to draw
the viewers eye in to the work.
• Expressionism – Creating a work of art to communicate an idea or
feeling rather than to look like something.
• Foreshortening – When a longer object (such as an arm) moves toward
your eye, the shape becomes unrecognizable to the left brain. The left brain
will draw the object from memory as though it was not foreshortened. The
Right brain can see the object as a flat shape and draw it correctly giving
it the illusion of form.
• Form – Three-dimensional shape. A circle is a shape. A sphere has
form.
• Formal Balance – Equal visual weight created with symmetry.
• Format – Size and shape of a two-dimensional working space.
• Geometric – Shapes that are man-made, usually with names (ex. Square,
triangle, circle, trapezoid).
• Gradation: In value, slowly moving from one value to another as with
a soft edge.
• Grid: A series of evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines placed
over a model. When the artists draws a proportional grid on his/her paper,
the artist can position the lines and shapes to cross the grid in the
corresponding space.
• Ground Rule – Objects that are sitting on the ground will appear to
move higher up on the picture plane as they recede.
• Guideline – Any line that is used as a measuring line rather than to
represent an edge. Guidelines should always be drawn lightly as they will be
erased at some point in the drawing.
• Hard Edge – A sudden change in the direction of the surface of an
object creating a visible corner and a sudden change in value. A cube has
hard edges.
• Hatching – A method of creating value in a drawing using lines. The
more concentrated the lines are, the darker the value will be. As the lines
become less concentrated or more spaced, the lighter the value will be.
• High Contrast – In value, very dark values next to very light values
with few or no middle values in between.
• High Key: Consisting of lighter values. A work of art that has a
lot of light values is high key.
• High Light: The surface area of the object that faces directly
toward the light source and therefore gets the lightest value
• Horizon – the edge that appears where the ground meets the sky in the
distance. The horizon always appears at ones eye level.
• Horizon Rule – Objects appear to move closer to the horizon as they
recede.
• Horizontal – A line that moves directly side to side, never up or
down. Horizon – the line where the sky meets the ground.
• Hue – The name of the pure color. Red is a hue. Pink is not a hue,
but a tint of t red. The colors on the color wheel are all hues.
• Informal Balance – Equal visual weight created asymmetrically (ex.
many small things on one side balanced with one large thing on the other.).
• Intensity – A measure of how close the color is to the pure hue.
White, black, or a third primary will make a pure hue less intense. The
colors on the color wheel are the most intense.
• Intermediate (or tertiary) Colors – The colors that are formed by two
of one primary and one of another, or, a primary and a neighboring
secondary. Red-orange is formed by mixing red and orange, or, two reds and a
yellow.
• L Mode: A state of thinking using information already stored in the
brain as symbols. Relating things to what is already known rather than
processing things simply as they really are.
• Light Logic – The logical results of light hitting an object.
Artists understand this and so are able to create the illusion of form.
• Light Shapes - The shapes that are created by light shining on an
object.
• Light Side – That part of an object or plane that is being hit by a
light source.
• Light Source – The angle of the light. This must be determined in
order to follow light logic.
• Line – A man-made device used to represent an edge of an object or to
express an
emotion.
• Line Quality – The characteristics of a line such as line weight,
shape, or movement.
• Line weight – The qualities of the line having to do with thick or
thin, light or dark.
• Local Color – The color that is designated to an object. The local
color of an apple is red and that is what the left brain will see. The right
brain will see more color in an object that just the local color.
• Lost and Found Edges – Edges are visible because of value changes
between objects and space. When the values are the same, the edges become
lost. Artists can create a sense of value change with lines that are lost
and found.
• Low Contrast: Having little or no change in value.
• Low Key: Consisting of Darker Values. A work of art that has a lot
of dark values is low key.
• Low Light: The surface area of the object that is being hit by the
light source but at an angle rather than directly. It is a light value
(about a 2) but slightly darker than high light (1).
• Measure Points – Places in a drawing that can be easily found and
referred to in order to find spatial relationships.
• Median Line - A guideline drawn down the center of a symmetrical
drawing. The edges of the drawing are measured from the median line to make
sure both sides are equidistant.
• Modeling – hatching in a direction that “models” the surface of the
object in order to strengthen the illusion of form.
• Monochromatic – A color scheme that is created with only one hue.
Shapes and edges are created by value changes in the hue.
• Movement – Creating a visual path for the viewer to travel from the
emphasis to other parts of the work. This keeps the viewer interested in the
work longer.
• Mural: A Large, 2 dimensional work of art usually created by many,
sometimes by an entire community. Murals are usually created in public
spaces to express the values of the community.
• Negative Shape – Shape created in an empty space by the edges of
positive shapes (ex. A donut is a positive shape, the hole in the donut is a
negative shape.)
• Non – Objective – No recognizable objects exist in the work.
• One point perspective - Situation in which all receding lines meet at
the same point in the center of the horizon.
• Organic – Shapes found in nature. Generally unrecognizable,
irregular shapes.
• Overlap – Objects that are closer to your eye will appear to cover up
objects that are further away and in the same line of sight.
• Parallel – The relationship between two lines that remain the same
distance apart as they move through space and thus will never meet.
• Perspective – The position from which one views a particular object.
As perspective changes, so does the appearance of the object.
• Perpendicular – The relationship between to lines that move at right
angles to each other.
• Picture Plane – The imaginary, vertical plane of a picture that is
closest to your eye. You could think of the paper on which you draw, as the
picture plane. Pictures with depth, appear to recede from the picture plane.
• Placement – how a shape or form is positioned or situated in space,
especially compared to other shapes.
• Plane – Flat or level surface such as a tabletop, or the ground.
• Portrait: An artistic representation of someone’s face.
• Primary Colors – They are the first colors. You cannot mix colors to
create red, yellow, and blue, but all colors are made with them.
• Principles of Design – Balance, Emphasis, Movement, Unity, Variety,
Rhythm, Proportion. These are the guidelines that artists use to organize
the elements into a stronger composition.
• Production - The making of works of art.
• Proportion – The ratio of one measurement to another. Ex. A piece
of paper that is 5” X 10” has the same proportions as a paper that is 3” X 6”
because both papers have one side that is half the size of the other.
• Proportion (as a principle of design)– Creating visually pleasing
relationships between parts of a work including, sizes, shapes, patterns.
• Pure Color – The most intense colors. No black, white, or third
primary has been added to the color, which would make it dull.
• R-Mode – A state of thinking brought on by a conscious decision to
perceive things as they really are in the concrete, not allowing for symbols
to interpret what is seen.
• Receding – Moving away from the eye.
• Reflective Light: Light that does not come from the light source but
is reflected off of the plain or other near by object. Reflective light can
be seen as a dim light on the shadow side of an object. It is usually the
lightest part of the shadow side but still darker than anything on the light
side (usually about a 3 value)
• Representational Art – A work that is created (or recreated) to
imitate or “represent” things in the real world.
• Rhythm – Creating a pattern or “visual beat” in a work of art.
• Scanning – Using a pencil or other instrument to create imaginary
verticals and horizontals in order to see what points in a drawing line up
vertically and/or horizontally.
• Secondary Colors – Two primaries mix together to form a secondary
color. The secondary colors are orange, violet, and green.
• Shade – A hue with a darker value. This can be created by adding
black, or a third primary by adding the color’s compliment. (Green will make
red look darker creating a shade of red).
• Shadow Edge – Border line between the light side and shadow side of
an object.
• Shadow Reflection: The reflection of the cast shadow on to the
object. It shows up as a dark value because there is no reflective light (no
light can reflect off of the cast shadow).
• Shadow Shape: In the same way that lines (edges) form positive and
negative shapes, shadow edges will form shadow shapes. Just as it is
important to perceive positive and negative shapes in R-mode, shadow shapes
must be perceived in R-mode.
• Shadow Side – That part of an object that is turned away from any
light source.
• Shape – Created when a line ends where it began.
• Sighting – Using an instrument, such as a pencil, to measure angles
or compare sizes of objects or parts of objects in space. This is done by
holding the instrument out in front of the eye and in the line of sight of
the object.
• Size Rule – Objects appear smaller as they recede.
• Soft Edge – A gradual change in the direction of the surface of an
object creating a curved surface and a gradual change in value. A sphere has
soft edges.
• Smearing – Creating value by using a finger or a tool to smear the
graphite around on the paper. This is the easiest way to create a soft edge.
• Spatial Relationship – How things compare in space (size, placement
in space, distance between, shape, negative shapes created, etc.).
• Stippling – Creating value with dots. The closer together the dots
are, the darker the value.
• Subject Matter – What the art is about. The objects that you see in
the work of art.
• Symbol System – The system of symbols that we all create in our left
brain in order to communicate quickly and efficiently (ex. words, numbers,
pictures are all stored in our brains to represent objects or ideas)
• Symmetry –Exactly equal in size and shape on opposite sides of a
median line.
• Three Components of every Work – Subject matter, composition, content.
• Thumbnail Sketch – a quick, small sketch done not to get the
representation exact, but rather to plan out the composition and study the
parts.
• Tint – A hue with a lighter value. This can be done by adding white
or with watercolor, adding more water and less color.
• Tooth: The peaks and valleys that can be seen on a piece of art
paper. Graphite and other media collects in the valleys and holds it on the
paper. As more collects, the values become darker, the colors more intense.
• Two point perspective: Situation in which all receding lines meet at
one of two points on opposite far ends of the horizon. Usually occurs when
the corner of an object is closest to your eye.
• Unity – Creating parts in a work that compliment each other and fit
together.
• Value – The measure of light and dark that is being seen.
• Value Change – As the surface of an object changes direction, so does
the value of the surface. It is because of value change that we recognize
forms and see edges.
• Value Scale: A range of values, white (1) being the highest, the
darkest being as dark as your pencil can make it (7 on our scale). Each
value is assigned a number which allows the artist to recognize different
values as they relate to the scale. A 4 value would be a medium value. 6
would be a dark value.
• Variety – Creating parts in a work that are not all exactly the
same. Differences that bring more interest into the work.
• Vanishing Point – A point on the horizon where receding lines meet.
All parallel lines meet at the same vanishing point.
• Vertical – A line that moves directly up and down, never side to
side. Vertigo – a fear of high places.
• Warm Colors – Red, yellow and orange are considered warm colors. A
warm color scheme is usually more active, passionate, or loud. Anger,
excitement, or joy might be expressed with warm colors.
